Fabrication and Refinement of 6061(p)/6063 Aluminum Laminate by Accumulative Roll-Bonding (ARB) Process

Abstract

A 6061 aluminum powder compact is fabricated by sheath rolling method using 6063 aluminum tube as a sheath. Accumulative Roll-Bonding (ARB) process is applied to the powder compact for improvement of its mechanical properties. The ARB process of 8 cycles is performed at ambient temperature under unlubricated conditions without removing the 6063 sheath. The ARB process of 6061 solid aluminum sheet is also performed for comparison to the 6061 powder compact. The tensile strength of the 6061(p)/6063 laminate increases almost linearly with the number of ARB cycles, and reached the maximum of 465MPa at the 6th cycle, which is 2.3 times higher than that of the initial. The elongation drops abruptly at the 1st cycle, and remains at a constant value (about 7%) from the 2nd cycle to the 5th cycle. Both the strength and the elongation decrease with the number of cycles above the 6th cycle. On the other hand, the tensile strength of 6061 sheet increases with the number of cycles gradually. The increase in tensile strength per cycle is greater in the 6061(p)/6063 laminate than that in the ARBed 6061 sheet. This strengthening is probably due to the fine dispersed oxide which was at first oxide film on aluminum. The ultra-fine grains less than 500nm in diameter are developed in the 6061(p)/6063 laminate fabricated by ARB process.